Last night, seven local bands gathered at La Casa to play a benefit show for victims of the Mt. Pleasant Fire. Proceeds (I’m still waiting on a figure) will go to Neighbor’s Consejo. A round-up of the line-up:

1. The Coats. I love the Coats. This three-piece does the ol’ switcharoo, taking turns on guitar, bass, drums, and keys. They rock hardest on the keys. They sound kind of like the Doors, except good! Boy, do I hate the Doors.

2. Wild Fictions. I missed most of this band’s set while buying a chocolate donut from the 7-Eleven down the street. I’m sure Wild Fictions was just as delicious.

3. Fever. The high-concept catch behind this benefit was that every band had to pen an original song entitled “Queen of the Water Dolphins.” Fever—first a two-piece, now a new and improved three—was the only band to pull off an ode to Her Majesty that deserves to stick around for future shows.

4. Kitty Hawk. I had never heard this band before. They whisked me away to a tropical paradise of calypso beats and casually tied forehead bandanas. And rock.

5. US Royalty. I’m not sure what it is about this band, but when lead singer John Thornley stripped down from a sweater to a button-down to, finally, a light-pink, deep v-neck tee, the crowd went fucking wild. The key to the band’s je ne sais quoi may be their haircuts: all immaculate. There’s something almost too polished about them … they may be androids.

6. Ra Ra Rasputin. Sexy.

7. Sugarcane Crawl. I first saw this band around six months ago. I was immediately drawn to the matching red, wavy mullets sported by two of the band’s members (seriously, check out the pictures). I later learned that they worked for Vidal Sassoon, so I was a little surprised that their haircuts were roughly the same about half a year later. They broke a lamp.

Update, 1:52 p.m.: The benefit raised $1,354.

In case you have yet to see this choice XXL interview with DMX, here’s the highlight:

XXL: Are you following the presidential race?
DMX: Not at all.

You’re not? You know there’s a Black guy running, Barack Obama and then there’s Hillary Clinton.
His name is Barack?!

Barack Obama, yeah.
Barack?!

Barack.
What the fuck is a Barack?! Barack Obama. Where he from, Africa?

Yeah, his dad is from Kenya.
Barack Obama?

Read the rest of this entry »

Annandale’s Strangeland Records won’t close its doors until March, but the metal-industrial shop will toast to its end with its last blowout show tomorrow, January 19. The ten-hour affair (2 p.m. to midnight) will feature thrash act Battlemaster (pictured), death metal guys Three Faces of Eve, plain metal dudes High Five for Suicide, and eight other local doom/thrash/punk/indie bands.

Next Saturday, Strangeland will follow up with its final DJ event, bringing in 20 area spinners to show the store off.

I missed Wu-Tang pillar Ghostface Killah (a.k.a. Tony Starks, Ghostface, Pretty Toney, Ironman, and Captain America) last night at the 9:30 Club. But a reader, Jeffrey, caught the show—and took care to document a Killah rumination on women and sandwich cookies. Jeffrey paraphrases Ghostface’s rant:

You know, when I’m on the bus, I like to have candy. So I was taking a nap, and I got up from my nap, and went up to the front of the bus to get some Oreos, and they weren’t there, and I looked around, and my man had these bitches on the bus, and they ate my Oreos. Bitches ate my Oreos! Bitches ate my Oreos! And then he didn’t even fuck them. He didn’t get no pussy.

Ghostface then launched into a spirited rendition of “Greedy Bitches,” a song that, by my count, says “bitch” nearly 40 times. How has VH1: Storytellers not picked up on this yet?